Video presentations are an important means of communication in the business world. In such applications, controlling and organizing presentations is necessary for effectively conveying information.
In prior art systems, limited control of video presentations are available. For example in one system ("MACROMIND"), the user, on-line, initializes a time line in a window on the screen of a display monitor. Specifically, the user with a time wand, perhaps a mouse or light pen, selects an action to occur from a vertical axis including a series of action options and assigns that action to a specific time coordinate along the time line on the horizontal axis. Therefore when the system is operative, as time progresses, the actions are executed in accordance with the initial time set up.
In another prior art method ("AUTHORWARE"), the user writes a flow chart on the screen to define presentation flow and actions are performed in accordance with the flow chart. Thus, if the action selected is to display or not to display something on the screen, the system performs these actions, displaying and not displaying, in the sequence defined by the flow chart.
In another known system ("HYPERCARD"), the user creates stacks of cards having scripts to perform various functions. The user can include various data types (e.g., sound, motion pictures) in the cards. The scripts are set up by the user using a complex scripting language.
The prior art, as described above, has several disadvantages. For example, the ability of the user to alter pre-determined system operation during actual operation is very difficult. Additionally, creating the presentation is also very difficult and requires some level of skill above that of the typical presenter, that is, it requires experts with specific knowledge of the scripting languages used in each system.
The present invention solves the disadvantages of the prior art systems by providing a novel user-friendly graphical interface for creating and modifying presentations.